DONALD Tusk laid into the likes of Boris Johnson, Michael Gove and Nigel Farage yesterday when he said there would be a “special place in hell” for those who have taken Britain to the brink of Brexit “without even a sketch of plan”.

In a press conference in Brussels, the European Council president also told journalists that as much as he wanted the UK to change its mind and come back to the EU, it would not happen as both Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn were Brexiteers.

“The facts are unmistakable,” he said. “At the moment the pro-Brexit stance of the UK Prime Minister, and the leader of the opposition, rules out this question.

“Today there is no political force, and no effective leadership, for remain.

“I say this without satisfaction, but you can’t argue with the facts.”

Tusk, who was speaking alongside Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar following talks, said the EU was preparing for the “possible fiasco” of no deal and insisted there would be no “new offer” to the Prime Minister when she comes to Brussels tomorrow seeking changes to the backstop.

READ MORE: Lesley Riddoch: Was Tusk right to damn Brexiteers? Hell yeah...

He said he hoped May would come to Brussels with a realistic plan: “I hope that tomorrow we will hear from Prime Minister May a realistic suggestion on how to end the impasse in which the process of the orderly withdrawal of the UK from the EU has found itself following the latest votes in the House of Commons.”

Until then, he added, the Irish border issued remained the EU’s top priority.

“The EU is first and foremost a peace project,” he said. “We will not gamble with peace or put a sell-by date on reconciliation. This is why we insist on the backstop.”

May is due to meet Tusk as well as European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker and chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier on a visit to Brussels today.

Tusk told May if she gave Brussels a “deliverable guarantee for peace in Northern Ireland and the UK will leave the EU as a trusted friend.”

He added: “I hope that the UK Government will present ideas that will both respect this point of view and at the same time command a stable and clear majority in the House of Commons.

“I strongly believe that a common solution is possible and I will do everything in my power to find it.”

He concluded: “By the way, I have been wondering what that

special place in hell looks like for those who promoted Brexit without even a sketch of a plan to carry it (out) safely.”

That comment infuriated Brexiteers. The former Ukip and now independent MEP for Scotland David Coburn to the BBC that Tusk needed to remember “he is paid to work for everybody including all the British people who voted to leave the EU. He should be facilitating that”.

Asked if he himself would be going to hell, Coburn replied: “Oh, I’m sure of that.”

The DUP’s Sammy Wilson was livid, labelling Tusk a “devilish Euro maniac” who was showing “contempt for the 17.4 million people who voted to escape the corruption of the EU and seek the paradise of a free and prosperous Kingdom”.

Andrea Leadsom, the leader of the Commons, said Tusk’s decision to reiterate the comments in a tweet was “spiteful”.

Meanwhile, in a joint statement, Nicola Sturgeon and her Welsh counterpart Mark Drakeford called on May to use her visit to Brussels to request an extension of Article 50.

The two First Ministers said a no-deal Brexit would be a “catastrophe which would cause significant short-term disruption to the lives of ordinary citizens”.